Ida Lupino's "The Filmmakers" company with Ida in the director's chair were renowned for tackling films on social issues which they tried to film with courage and good taste. "Not Wanted" (1950) dealt with teenage pregnancy, "Outrage" (1950) with rape etc. The following year Ida found a story that has a lot of relevance today , John R. Tunis tennis story "Mother of a Champion" - eventually hitting cinemas as "Hard, Fast and Beautiful", a title apparently devised by Howard Hughes. The role of the mother intrigued Claire Trevor and so "The Filmmakers" were provided with their first "name" star.
Ambitious Millie Farley (a very glamorous Claire Trevor) is sick and tired of her suburban surroundings - she is living through her lovely daughter Florence (Sally Forrest) who is starting to make a name for herself on the tennis circuit. Florence happens to catch the eye of Fletcher Locke (Carleton G. Young) a "builder of champions", a coach and a promoter and with the "pushing" support of him and her mother she wins the Junior championships. As she climbs the tennis ladder she is torn between making her mother proud and being just a normal girl who wants to get married and keeping her close relationship with her father.
Even though the script focused more on Florence's romantic woes, it would have been more successful (I think) if it had concentrated more on what made Millie tick. From the start she was the most interesting character in the movie but the script couldn't decide whether to make her scheming and vain or just a mixed up example of a smothering mother. When she first meets Florence's boyfriend Gordon, she dolls herself up and he comments "you look more like sisters than mother and daughter" and when she meets Fletcher, she believes he is her ticket to riches and high society. That theme is never developed. Still, Miss Trevor plays it with her usual all stops out and with authentic tennis locations filmed at Forest Hills and Miss Forrest looking like she had actually played tennis, all were big pluses.
While touring Europe, Florence realises that her mother is taking gifts for promoting certain items - Florence stays at the Ritz, wears $200 dresses etc while other young players are only scraping by. She is disgusted by it even though earlier in the movie she had innocently accepted $50 for playing in an exhibition match that could have ruined her amateur standing. That is another theme that could have been developed, the graft and corruption were present even at that level of women's tennis. But it went for the "love cures all" side even though the ending was particularly stark, showing Millie who had just lost everything (Florence had turned her back on her to marry and Fletcher is seen in animated conversation with a new up and coming tennis player) sitting alone in a darkened stadium.
In 1945 Ida Lupino saw herself in later years as a developer of new talent and she can certainly add Sally Forrest to the list. Forrest, who looked a little like a young Ida and Claire Trevor, had been a choreographer at MGM but it was in the Lupino directed films that she received her most challenging roles. Ida makes an appearance in "Hard, Fast and Beautiful" ala Hitchcock, she and Robert Ryan appear as part of the tennis crowd.
Highly Recommended.
Ambitious Millie Farley (a very glamorous Claire Trevor) is sick and tired of her suburban surroundings - she is living through her lovely daughter Florence (Sally Forrest) who is starting to make a name for herself on the tennis circuit. Florence happens to catch the eye of Fletcher Locke (Carleton G. Young) a "builder of champions", a coach and a promoter and with the "pushing" support of him and her mother she wins the Junior championships. As she climbs the tennis ladder she is torn between making her mother proud and being just a normal girl who wants to get married and keeping her close relationship with her father.
Even though the script focused more on Florence's romantic woes, it would have been more successful (I think) if it had concentrated more on what made Millie tick. From the start she was the most interesting character in the movie but the script couldn't decide whether to make her scheming and vain or just a mixed up example of a smothering mother. When she first meets Florence's boyfriend Gordon, she dolls herself up and he comments "you look more like sisters than mother and daughter" and when she meets Fletcher, she believes he is her ticket to riches and high society. That theme is never developed. Still, Miss Trevor plays it with her usual all stops out and with authentic tennis locations filmed at Forest Hills and Miss Forrest looking like she had actually played tennis, all were big pluses.
While touring Europe, Florence realises that her mother is taking gifts for promoting certain items - Florence stays at the Ritz, wears $200 dresses etc while other young players are only scraping by. She is disgusted by it even though earlier in the movie she had innocently accepted $50 for playing in an exhibition match that could have ruined her amateur standing. That is another theme that could have been developed, the graft and corruption were present even at that level of women's tennis. But it went for the "love cures all" side even though the ending was particularly stark, showing Millie who had just lost everything (Florence had turned her back on her to marry and Fletcher is seen in animated conversation with a new up and coming tennis player) sitting alone in a darkened stadium.
In 1945 Ida Lupino saw herself in later years as a developer of new talent and she can certainly add Sally Forrest to the list. Forrest, who looked a little like a young Ida and Claire Trevor, had been a choreographer at MGM but it was in the Lupino directed films that she received her most challenging roles. Ida makes an appearance in "Hard, Fast and Beautiful" ala Hitchcock, she and Robert Ryan appear as part of the tennis crowd.
Highly Recommended.